TRENTON — City Council members have asked the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the Trenton Thanksgiving Parade Committee, which is being allowed to reimburse the city for overtime incurred by city employees who worked during the parade on Saturday, rather than paying for services up front.

“The people of the city have to be outraged, just as I am outraged,” said Councilman Zachary Chester.

Chester said the council received two letters from mayoral aide Anthony Roberts announcing that the 2013 Trenton Thanksgiving Day Parade Committee would reimburse the city for overtime costs incurred by employees from the public works department and the police department.

Chester said the committee that held the parade, using private funds, should not have been allowed to have the city pay expenses for the employee costs up front, because no other private organization holding an event in the city would be given the same leeway.

“This is wrong, and this council cannot sit here and allow this to happen,” Chester said.

Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson took issue with the idea that the city would wait to be reimbursed for costs associated with a private event, essentially lending those funds to the organizing group.

“It looks like the city has become its own personal bank, and we are not in that business,” Caldwell-Wilson said.

First Assistant Prosecutor Angelo Onofri said the issue with the parade “will be looked at.”

The letters, sent to city Chief Financial Officer Janet Schoenharr and to Christopher Vaz from the state Department of Community Affairs, state that the committee will reimburse the city for the parade expenses. Roberts attached a copy of a cashier’s check for $1,544.14 for the public works employees’ overtime. It was from a Wells Fargo Bank account, written out to the city and dated Monday. The employees assisted in setting up for the parade and also helped to clean up after it was over.

The parade began at 11 a.m. on Saturday and was scheduled to run until 2 p.m. By 12 p.m., the streets were reopened and there was music and dancing and other activities happening in the parking lot behind city hall.

Roberts has repeatedly refused to name the people on the committee or say how many donations the committee has received or from whom.

Roberts said the committee has yet to pay the police for the overtime because there is “an issue surrounding the ‘time’ the Trenton Police stopped working.” When reached by phone tonight, Roberts said he had been in contact with Police Director Ralph Rivera’s office and was waiting to hear back from the director about the costs.

“We got a budget from the police department that needs to be clarified,” Roberts said.

He declined to say what the issue was with the police overtime, but said once the amount was set, the committee would reimburse the city for that expense as well. The police department anticipated that the parade would cost the city $3,000 in overtime costs. That amount did not include the administrative fees that are usually levied for private events that require police.

Rivera declined to comment about the issue tonight.

Roberts said no other city funds were used for the event. He said there would be no cost for use of the Department of Recreation’s stage or for using the parking lot behind City Hall, where a bounce house and inflatable slide were set up for the event on Saturday.

Council will hold a special meeting next week in executive session to discuss the parade, Chester said. He said he will be drafting the letter to the prosecutor today asking him to investigate the parade and the committee.